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Stewart Mills: Shipman

Propaganda in the modern day is all around us from television and the Internet, to flyers and pamphlets that could be sent out through the mail or distributed to the public in other ways. Propaganda is also used in campaigns for political office, and can be a strategic tool in shaping an image of the candidate. Today, many believe that propaganda is used to change the way the audience sees and thinks about the images involved. One example of this could be portraying a leader as a hero to their people in order to gain the support they needed to remain in power. This type of control over images can also be seen through many political advertisements that support or attack a specific candidate. Like other forms of propaganda, political ads try to shift the public’s opinion about candidates and policy issues.

In 2016, there were many congressional seats up for election, and the political campaigns in Minnesota were in full swing. On local news outlets, many advertisements had been played in support of candidates, and others that are against those same people. One example of this is the commercials of Stewart Mills, who ran for Congress, and a few advertisements created in response against his ideas. In his ad, Mills appears with a group of blue-collar Americans who work in a salvage yard and auto parts store. Mills is shown “getting his hands dirty” as one of the men say, and walking around with the cars talking with the extras in the shots. This image of him as a hardworking American man is used to try and get support from the large number of citizens who would agree with someone of the same background.

Through this propaganda, Stewart Mills is portrayed as a person invested in Minnesota and someone who cares about local businesses and the economy. This could be considered positive propaganda, as it tries to paint a good view and positive emotions about Mills as a candidate for office to the audience. With the use of class to connect him with others, his image is altered. By placing him in a salvage yard and showing scenes of him working on cars, he can be represented as a mans-man in today’s society, and might change the way people think about him when it comes time to vote in November.

Other advertisements were released as counter propaganda against this idea of Stewart Mills, including one that involved old footage of Mills discussing his family’s status as millionaires. Another ad was created as a parody to the salvage yard commercial, showing a fake behind-the-scenes shot of a director coaching a Mills stand-in on what to say. It ends with the fake director stating, “they will totally buy that.” This would try to discredit the image of a blue-collar Mills, and suggests that the whole advertisement was a show. Whether it is negative political advertisement to discredit a candidate, or a positive piece of propaganda to shape a new image of someone for the election, political advertisements are used constantly to change the way the citizens and audience think and act in the elections.